Raze watched the clock mercilessly. Her eyes followed the second hand as it ticked forward at a snail's pace. The professor droned on about organ systems and raze just wanted to get back to the dorm and flop on her bed and take a nap. She still had her weapon techniques seminar after lunch break though but after that she'd be free.
Her fingers thrummed on the table and the boy sitting next to her scooted farther away. She glanced at him and narrowed her eyes. On her right, her sister stomped on her foot.
"Stop twitching," Gail hissed, "You look like a weirdo."
"I am a weirdo," Raze snapped back. Gail couldn't argue that. Raze groaned and leaned back on her chair, balancing it on two legs. Five more minutes, just three hundred seconds between her and stuffing her stomach. She began to count down but at 293, her thoughts were interrupted.
"Harlow!" Professor stein snapped.
"Yeah?" Raze and gail both answered.
Stein sighed, exasperated. "Raze harlow. Are you paying attention?"
"Yes," She lied.
"What are we dissecting monday?" He drilled. Raze stared blankly. The kid next to her laughed under his breath and she balled her hands into fists.
"I don't know. Frogs?"
"No. I suggest you figure it out. If you come to class unprepared, you'll be the one under the knife."
The bell rand and Stein turned his cold gaze on some other victim. Raze turned to Chide. He'd been sitting next to her since the first day of classes and they shared a weapons techniques seminar but he always tried to avoid her as much as possible. She wasn't sure why it pissed her off so much, lots of kids tried to be around her as little as possible, but right now she was livid. She shoved her chair back and nearly toppled over. Gail grabbed her arm and stopped the chair with a well placed foot.
Chide lost it. He barely hid his laughter in the sleeve of his jacket. Raze was already stomping toward the kid. She grabbed him by the shirt front and yanked him within two inches of her face.
"If you wanna laugh, bitch, I'm listening." She growled. Gail ripped her away without apologizing to the boys and Raze watched him fix his shirt and then push past his brother. The meister brother just stared at her, didn't even defend his brother. She turned away and followed Gail out of the classroom. "Is it just me, or does the one with longer hair always stare at you like he wants to eat you…..or ask you to dinner and interrogate you. Im not she which would be worse though." She sniffed in disdain. "Rich douche bags."
"Don't let them get to you, Raze. Actually, don't let anybody get to you. You're too up tight lately. What gives?" Gail asked. She sounded like your average worried "older" sister, but Raze knew she was more worried about Raze loosing her cool and costing them big time. Getting expelled for disruptive behavior was the last thing on their list of plans.
"Are we meeting Nami today?" Raze asked, avoiding the question. Gail's gaze hardened and Raze hurried ahead toward their suite mate's classroom. Gail tried to pull her back but Raze shook her sister's hand off. "Seriously Gail, get off my ass. I'm fine, okay?" Gail didn't look convinced. "Let's go I'm starving and I have weap-tech in twenty minutes."
They waited for Izunami outside the girl's homeroom class. She was the last one out and Raze was bouncing in place while they waited. "What took so long Nami, geez, you're such a goody goody." Izunami ignored the nuisance.
"Is Sai meeting us today?" Gail asked.
"Nah," izunami said, "She's got a meeting with the meister advisors.
"She's skipping lunch?" Raze wondered. Nami nodded. "Gross, I could never!"
"Right?" Nami agreed.
"I swear," Gail sighed, "You weapons only think with your stomachs."
The other girls laughed, "We gotta be ready for Weap-Tech, you wouldn't understand because all you do is play with numbers and facts its meister classes."
Gail scoffed. "You think learning about resonance of souls is easy? Have some respect for the girl that's been keeping your wavelength in check for the past 14 years. Christ." Raze laughed at her sister's annoyance.
"Where's Jen?"
"Probably with Helix. Those two've been glued at the hip since orientation. I bet they'll end up partners." Nami said.
"Yeah, but just because you're friends doesn't mean your wavelengths match." Raze mused, staring at the lines in the cafeteria and screaming internally. Gail handed her a tray and slapped her on the back.
"That can be taken a bunch of ways. Like you could end up partners with someone you totally hate right now, right?" Nami got in the shortest line for pizza. It would be a struggle for them to make their next classes with the afternoon crowd in the dining hall.
"Gonna be a quickie this time," Raze sighed, looking forward to dinner. They grabbed slices of pizza and a small table on the border of the hall. "Did you see the way that asshole scooted away from me today, Gail? What the hell is his problem?"
Gail dropped her pizza on her plate with a plop. "I knew it, it's bothering you. What is your problem lately? Why the heck is he such a big deal? Just get over it. Stuff like this never messed you up before." That shut Raze up for a good five minutes as she mulled over a response and shoved more food down her throat.
"I dunno," She said through the cheese and crust, "Guess he just gets to me or something. The way he always looks scared or something like he's looking down his rich little nose. It really pisses me off. You should see him in weap-tech. Stays like one hundred yards away at all times no exceptions. I mean, that's great and all, i love me some personal space, but for real? Im not going to kill him….yet."
Nami and Gail snorted as Raze covered up her embarrassment with more food. "We gotta go," Nami reminded Raze. "We'll be late for your date with enemy number one."
"Who's that?" Raze asked. She could be too dense sometimes.
"Chide," Gail teased as Raze pretended to gag.
Izunami and Raze said goodbye to Gail at the main entrance and made their way to the practice field. Jenn, their other suite mate, and a few others were already there, but Chide wasn't. Raze hoped he would be late and embarrass himself.
"Hey Nami!" Someone called from the far end of the field. "Wanna be partners today?"
"Sure!" Izunami called. "See you later Raze." Raze waved halfheartedly, glad to be alone again but put off that todays lesson was to be taught in pairs. She looked around, wondering who she'd have to deal with. So far, the lessons had all been solo training, and even a bit of lecture. It was like gym class combined with some sort of meditation bullshit where they taught you how to better "meld with your meister." 'I can already meld with my meister,' Raze constantly thought instead of focusing on her own soul's wavelength and its quirks like she was supposed to be. 'Gail is my meister, this stupid school won't change that.'
Everything about the DWMA so far was boring the crap out of her. The people were boring and the ones that gave her shit and made her day interesting were all "off -limits" according to Gail. No fights, no tricks, no murders, no anything! Gail was doing her best to make sure Raze's testy attitude didn't cost them this opportunity, Raze new that, but still she was already starting to feel a bit pent up and it was only the end of the second week.
"Hey."
Raze turned around and nearly jumped five feet in the air she was so startled. "What," she snarled.
"You and I," Chide paused to take a breath. He must've run to class. "Are the only ones left…" Raze looked around in disbelief. She'd spent so much time sulking about how "pent up" she'd been that she hadn't remembered to ditch the partner class.
"Shit." She blurted out.
"Look," Chide huffed, trying to inch away as much as possible. "Let's just get through this class without killing each other, ok?"
"Don't screw me up, jerk." Raze jabbed. The professor called the class to attention and The two grudgingly took their places in line.
"You'll be doing one on one training now. We're stepping away from the mental training for today because I'm sure you all want a chance to practice with your classmates and to learn from each other. I want you to do five minute spars, one on one. Practice localized transformations and technique. Spread out." the professor waited for the students to take positions. "Ready. Set. Spar!"
Raze lashed out at Chide, fingers turned blade, all adrenaline and pent up need for a good fight. Chide ducked and with a grunt he tried to throw of Raze's balance with a kick. It almost worked. He'd hooked her ankle and pulled it off the ground, but Raze rolled into the fall and recovered quickly, She didn't land on her butt like he'd hoped, but she did slow down. They looked at each other for a moment before Chide was again ducking from her vicious lunges. She was relentless. By the end of five minutes, Chide was pinned to the ground and Raze sneered at him from her higher position. However, Chide soon realized that Raze wasn't taking him seriously. She was too focused on attacking and paid no mind to strategy. Raze wasn't fighting to learn, she was fighting to relieve her own stress. Chide exploited that weakness until he was the one pinning her to the ground and laughing as she squirmed.
"Get the fuck off of me you little shit!" She yelled. "I will cut that smirk right off you face." She hurled threats like fastballs. Chide was positive she meant everyone of them. He let her go and she leaped up and shuffled away from him. Her eyes never left him. She was beginning to understand that he wasn't just some spoiled rich kid. He had guts and he didn't put up with shit. Raze wasn't used to people actually trying to fight back. She smirked.
Something clicked in Chide's mind and he realized he may have made a terrible mistake. Now that Raze new he had game and wasn't just some kid wet behind the ears, she looked cunning. Her eyes scanned him like a machine. She picked him apart mentally and he knew she was going to start fighting him for real. It wasn't a game anymore, it was a competition and Chide was fairly certain it would have been better to just get pinned down ten times in a row. "Fuck," He muttered to himself. The third spar was about to begin and he was struggling to imagine the world of hurt he'd just signed up for.
Raze's mindless onslaught from the previous spars was gone. No, when the professor called spar, she waited and kept her gaze trained on Chide. No lunging or yelling, just silence save for the grunts and yells from the pairs in the blurred background. Finally, Chide couldn't take it anymore. He cocked his fist and let it fly. Raze easily blocked the punch. That much he'd expected. But when she held his fist in her hand and began to squeeze, Chide started to sweat. Raze was grabbing on to his metallic, flaming fist and the only hint that she registered the pain of the burn was in the involuntary twitching of her arm. Chide wasn't sure what else to do but rip his hand free and feign a fall, going for her legs with a kick.
He felt her hands on his head as she used his stable position as leverage to vault herself right over him, avoiding the kick. She was being completely defensive and it was so different from previously that Chide wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't even sure of her capabilities, let alone how to deal with her tactics. He may have one the last spar, but he felt almost like it had been a set up. He used the momentum from his kick to turn himself around to face Raze Just in time to watch in slow motion as she let a fist fly into his stomach.
"Yeah," She raved, "Feels good, right pretty boy? The hurt feels good!" She wasn't even using her weapon capabilities and the wind was knocked out of Chide. He coughed and tried to recover before she could initiate anything new. He grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm, whirling her around and pinning it behind her back. She grunted, whether in pain frustration or joy Chide couldn't tell and didn't want to be informed.
"Go ahead," she whispered. "Break it. Pull it off, I don't care. I could kill you with one arm!"
Disturbed, Chide let go of Raze. She whirled around and shoved him back. He stumbled, but didn't lose his balance. He watched as she ran through different plans in her head. It only took a split second but he'd done the exact same thing countless times before, he just didn't know the hotheaded girl that scared him shitless could also be strategic. Brute force was one thing for Raze to throw around and reason enough to avoid her like the plague, but this whole “I’m going to kill you tactically and strategically while savoring any blow you can land on me” side of her was too much. She was a psycho!
“Lost your nerve?” Raze jabbed with her words and her fist. Chide easily avoided the punch. He lashed out and nicked her shoulder. Raze grunted and stumbled back, laughing. Chide wondered if she was actually being strategic, like he’d assumed, or if she was just being a total weirdo. She seemed to be going in the total opposite direction from their first spar where she threw everything she had into play. Now, she was backing of, laughing, grinning and waiting. Baiting him into attacking and lovibg it when his fist connected. This wasn’t a physical fight anymore. It was a mental standoff. She was trying to throw him off and it was working!
The third spar ended in a stalemate, both Raze and Chide evaluating the other. When the professor ended the third session, she stood up straight, stretched out a bit and braced herself for the next. Chide swallowed his fear and did the same. Class was only just beginning.
